LAHORE: Nine people, including seven of the same family, died while two others were injured when the roof of a three-storey house collapsed after a cylinder blast during Sehr time in the Haram Gate area of Multan on Tuesday.

The incident took place at around 3:30am in Mohalla Jawadian when Musarat Bibi, the wife of Naseebur Rehman, was busy making Sehri at the top floor of her three-storey house when the gas cylinder exploded.

Resultantly, the roof of the house caved in with a bang and fell on the adjacent single storey house. All the seven family members who were asleep in that house were trapped under the debris as the roof of the three-storey house fell on it.

Naseebur Rehman and his son Abbdullah died on the spot while his wife Musarat and another son Waqar suffered burn injuries.

The deceased of the other family were identified as Ameer Ali, 12, Komal, 13, Danish, 15, Waseem, 14, Bakhtawar Ameen, 18, Faheem Abbas, 40 and his wife Sanoobar, 40.

Rescue 1122 and district administration reached the spot and launched a rescue operation to recover the trapped people.

District Emergency Officer Dr Kaleemullah told the media that a rescue call about the building collapse was received around 3:30am after which the teams rushed to the site. He said 11 people were trapped under the debris after the building collapsed out of which nine lost their lives while two of them were injured and they were shifted to the Nishtar Hospital where their condition was critical.

Meanwhile, Multan Deputy Commissioner Rizwan Qadeer ordered an inquiry into a building collapse. Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Muhammad Saif is heading the inquiry committee and it will present a report within 48 hours.

The committee will also assess losses and the cause of the mishap. Initially, it was termed as a cylinder blast by police.

The DC also instructed officials to conduct physical inspections of dangerous buildings. Multan is over 5,000 years old and there are hundreds of old buildings in the walled city. The DC observed that the administration would surely come up with concrete measures for vacating the dilapidated buildings and shifting the residents to safer places.

Multan Commissioner Maryam Khan, Regional Police Officer (RPO) Sohail Chaudhry and City Police Officer (CPO) Sadiq Ali Dogar also visited the spot.

Talking to media, the RPO said that initial investigation suggested that the incident was caused by a cylinder blast. She said that the district administration would launch a crackdown on low quality cylinders while the district administration would also conduct a survey of the dangerous buildings in the city.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2024